Processional Gull

1000 - 1200 Cloud, sunny, cool to warm WSW f2-4

A much needed birding trip....seems like I haven't been out for ages, though probably not that long....so off to Oare....

When I left home it was still sunny, with little cloud, but quite warm....you just forget how it is in more open territory....Rye is a good example where the sea winds blow pretty chilly at times....and Oare....getting out the car it wasn't long before I was pulling on a jumper....thankfully the sun did come back out and it warmed up a little...

JK had given me a tip for Turtle Doves....just south of the cottages in the stubble...and there they were, one on the line I could hear another in the scrub.....good call...there were also some Linnet with them and the House Sparrows at the cottages themselves.  Swifts were jetting overhead.

It was pretty crowded in the car park....though the number of birders seemed limited....whilst I was, er, not booting up...I remained in sandals....a nice man came by and said 'the gull is down the ramp'....he was very happy....so several people trotted off to become happy too....

Down the ramp and tog was busy click-click-clicking....a car came up the ramp and splattered my with mud.....nice....anyway....reaching the tog there was indeed....Bonapartes Gull....catching worms galore....

To me its just a Black-headed Gull really.....and there were plenty of them in support....its not really the star bird I came for, so it was time to move on for a look-a-round....off along the seawall, every time I looked back a procession of birders was up and down the ramp...

Avocet, Meadow Pipit, Lapwing, Cormorant, Herring Gull, Coot, Mallard, Ruff (ragged looking), Grey Heron, Moorhen, Redshank, Starling, Mediterranean Gull, Goldfinch, Black-tailed Godwit, Curlew, Great Black-backed Gull, Great Crested Grebe, Woodpigeon, Pied Wagtail, Swallow, Little Egret....Whimbrel....Sedge Warbler, Oystercatcher, Shelduck, Great Tit family.....

....by this time I had wandered round to the road so stopped at the pull-ins by east flood.....the Bonapartes had relocated to here having stuffed itself......a few scans around the are then produced the bird I had come for....Spotted Redshank....over the far side, nicely summer plumaged still....however, it then flew out of sight.....returning to the car produced Stonechat, Magpie, Crow......and a crowd of birders marauding along the road....time to go....